How news media visually dehumanize victims of humanitarian crises through framing disparities: A quantitative comparative analysis

IF 1.3 3区文学 Q2 COMMUNICATION

International Communication Gazette Pub Date : 2023-11-21 DOI:10.1177/17480485231216583

Zhe Xu, Mengrong Zhang

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

News images have been powerful agents in chronicling humanitarian crises, shaping public engagement with vulnerability, and inhibiting or supporting societal and political interactions. Research critically indicates that refugees frequently face dehumanizing visuals in news media. However, the humanitarian communication literature has primarily limited itself to surveying the vulnerability of the global South as visualized by Western media. This study addresses this gap by employing an inductive-then-deductive framing approach to compare how the news media in the UK, the US, and China visually depict the humanitarian crises in Afghanistan and Ukraine. The analysis shows that the way humanitarian crises are visualized in the news media is influenced by journalism culture across media systems and the geographical origins of suffering. The UK and US media perpetuate a post-humanitarian routine of cultural assimilation, while Chinese authoritarian media instrumentalize distant humanitarian crises for geopolitical purposes, both reinforcing the visual dehumanization of humanitarian vulnerability.

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新闻媒体如何通过框架差异从视觉上将人道主义危机的受害者非人化：定量比较分析

新闻图像在记录人道主义危机、塑造公众对脆弱性的参与以及抑制或支持社会和政治互动方面发挥了强大的作用。研究批判性地指出，难民经常在新闻媒体中面对非人化的视觉形象。然而，人道主义传播文献主要局限于调查西方媒体视觉化的全球南部地区的脆弱性。本研究采用先归纳后演绎的框架方法，比较了英国、美国和中国的新闻媒体如何直观地描述阿富汗和乌克兰的人道主义危机，从而弥补了这一空白。分析表明，新闻媒体对人道主义危机的视觉化方式受到不同媒体系统的新闻文化和苦难起源地的影响。英国和美国的媒体延续了后人道主义的文化同化模式，而中国的专制媒体则出于地缘政治的目的将遥远的人道主义危机工具化，两者都强化了人道主义脆弱性的非人化视觉。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

International Communication Gazette COMMUNICATION-

CiteScore

4.40

自引率

5.30%

发文量

期刊介绍： International Communication Gazette is a major international, peer-reviewed journal. It aims to contribute to a fuller knowledge and understanding of: -the structures and processes of international communication -the regulatory regimes in the field of international communication -the interaction between international and national flows of communication -the complexities of intercultural communication across national borders The International Communication Gazette seeks contributions that are international comparative in scope. The journal aims, wherever possible, to publish work by authors with an international reputation and contributions that are of interest to international audiences. The journal: -invites contributions that focus on international issues in the field of communication studies -seeks contributions comparing two or more countries or regions and only accept contributions on national issues in case the global significance of such issues is paramount -draws on high quality work from the international community of communication researchers -encourages innovative approaches to theoretical and methodological developments in the communications field -ensures that articles are written in transparent terminology and lucid style to render them accessible across the borders of specific disciplines